


World of the Light

by Liskel



Category: Sky: Children of the Light (Video Game)
Genre: Butterflies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:01:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26830336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liskel/pseuds/Liskel
Summary: There are many creatures that exist among the realms. Why are they there? Why do they act as they do?Just my thoughts on the world of Sky. Does contain spoilers in the form of the final levels of sanctuary and ark, if you count those as spoilers.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	1. Butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> None of this is cannon lore. It's just me musing about what else exists outside of us players and why.

While not the _very_ first light creature a newly woken child will meet, swarms of butterflies cover the isle of dawn and mark the way through the sandy beach. They provide the first points of light in a desolate land, where a lone star-ed child can stop and rest before taking a single flap away. 

An isolated swarm lies trapped away from the others, though an adventurous child can quickly find the offending jar. 

Swarms stick tightly together to light one another, which is how they survive encroaching darkness. They seek movement and will attempt to light any creature they come across, though they lack the ability to tell whether or not that creature is fully lit or not, and moreover cannot tell creatures of darkness from those of light.

* * *

The central home of the butterflies lies within the daylight prairie, known quite aptly as the butterfly fields. Large swarms cover the plain, providing the perfect playground for a child still learning to fly. Despite their abundant numbers, they remain a pale shadow of their formal numbers before darkness fell. It is now very rare to find multiple swarms together outside of the fields. A few fly around the birds nest, but none venture farther than that.

Nearby to the fields rests an old, abandoned village. Darkness has long since set in to the bells there, grinding them into halt. Should the darkness remain to fester, the bells will fall quiet forever. In the village heyday, however, they made their living from exporting jars of butterflies, light condensed into whole swarms trapped and shipped away. The elder of the daylight prairie had once been village chief, and knows the butterflies as well as he used to know his people. 

* * *

Lonely, dying swarms of butterflies pockmark the few sections of the hidden forest where the poisonous rain does not touch. Darkness chokes the land, trapping any creature foolish enough to linger for too long.

The conquest is recent enough that only one black tree has yet grown, however. A small pocket of forest remains sunny, although recent growths of darkness speak to its transience. It is there that the second largest swarm of butterflies gather. They are escapees of the underground, from where many butterfly jars, never shipped to their final destination, lie gathering dust. 

A small swarm, slowly fading, rests on a tree root within the boneyard, fighting to stay lit. While most swarms, when called, can boost a child quite high into the air, the weakened nature of that lone swarm has cut down quite severely on that.

A final swarm exists within the forest temple, where the blast doors remain sealed tight against the gathering darkness, sharing light with the birds and the jellyfish.

* * *

No swarm lives within the shining depths the valley of triumph. It is unknown why.

* * *

Once, the golden wasteland had been a paragon of industry, a major port city with access to huge reservoirs of oil. Now it is a baren, desolate place. Any swarm that had once lived there has long since been devoured by the current occupants of the land or extinguished by the polluted water. 

A child that has restored the light to the forgotten ark, however, will find that the merchant ship contains a few battered jars of butterflies which will fly free over the wreck. Perhaps, if the darkness recedes, swarms will spread from this place back. once again, to the city.

* * *

Even in the past, the vault was a solemn place of shadows and quiet contemplation. No butterflies were permitted into its hallowed chambers, except for those brought in for study. 

Even now, so long after the final researcher closed the halls for good, that has not changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think that jars of butterflies were a commodity back in ye old days. The village in daylight prairie made them, which is why there are so many there, and sold them to merchants, who brought those to the other realms.
> 
> The ark ship is most likely a merchant ship, based on the fact that we buy spells there, and the ship has the materials to set up shop like that. There is also the way that the spirits in the Season of Enchantment interact with each other, which is friendly and informal. That behavior rests in contrast to the other shipwreck in wasteland, whos occupying spirit is clearly military.
> 
> I can't remember ever finding a single swarm of butterflies in valley. It is an odd distinction.


	2. Spirits

Spirits are mere echoes of a long forgotten past, tiny snippets in time which left a ghost of an impression in a concentration of light. Those they emulate are long gone, and the spirits are not sentient; merely replaying the moment to which they were preserved. When a child holds their red candle to a spirit, the light becomes agitated, forcing it out of stagnancy and into motion. 

Children who choose to provide light and substance into these echoes light up the spirits further, bringing the spirit into definition and allowing the child to copy the spirit's appearance, mannerisms, and voice. A child who gifts the spirit powerful light in the form of ascended candles allows the concentration of light that formed the spirit to swell up and split, gifting the child back a winged light. 

A spirit left too long unlit will eventually fade away, as the light fades away. If the spirit is in a place with much light, it will last much longer than one tucked away in the dark. 

Elder spirits are bound to physical objects and watch over their respective realms. They are the only spirits with remaining consciousness. Only once their entire realm has been swallowed by darkness and no light remains will they fade. The wasteland elder is close to this fate, although the restoration of the ark has strengthened him. In contrast, the forest elder is much less far gone, but is in sharp decline as the darkness invades the sunny forest.


End file.
